May 4, 2009

The stimulus is starting to work, jobs are being saved, people are taking advantage of incentives to buy houses, things look a little better.

But the stimulus is a short-term attempt to create demand when the other areas of the economy cannot. It is not a permanent solution. It buys time, but we are supposed to be fixing the underlying problems of the economy so this doesn't keep happening.

Yes, the investment components of the stimulus will have a long-term effect, but the rest is just to help us get through hard times. Most of the money goes to make up for whqt the Republicans did to the economy -- maintaining neglected infrastructure, helping out people who lost jobs, etc. The investment portion is barely enough to trigger new green industries.

Is this keeping us from making necessary changes? I haven't seen a reform of financial regulations. I haven't seen a ban on corporate lobbying. I haven't seen anything that fundamentally changes the way the corporations have harvested us, throwing most of the wealth to the top few, corrupting our democracy, stripping the resources of the planet...